Biographical Sketch of W. A. "Bud" Baeslack III

W. A. "Bud" Baeslack III, a native of greater Cleveland, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Ohio State, and went on to earn a doctorate in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He spent 17 years at Ohio State, serving as a faculty member, department chair, associate dean and interim university vice president of research before becoming dean of engineering at RPI in 1999. He returned to Ohio State in 2004, recruited by a team that included Snyder, then Ohio State's interim provost.

As engineering dean at Ohio State, Baeslack led development of a performance plan for the college that resulted in increasing undergraduate enrollment, growth in research support and improved national rankings. At the same time, the College launched an innovative undergraduate engineering initiative, improved diversity among faculty and administrators and created several new interdisciplinary research centers.

Baeslack also participated in the development and implementation of a strategic plan at RPI, in which the school identified key priorities for interdisciplinary research. Baeslack helped recruit nearly 20 new faculty in such areas as Biotechnology, Nanotechnology/Advanced Materials and Information Systems. Over a four-year period the number of women who were tenured or tenure track grew by 70 percent, and the number of Hispanic and African-American tenured or tenure-track faculty also increased significantly.

At both Ohio State and RPI Baeslack was well-known for his success in developing partnerships with industry and government. Honda of America, for example, maintains a robust partnership with engineering at Ohio State that includes funding to promote awareness of engineering among high school students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, as well as scholarships and other programs to support new curricular initiatives.